The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1887-11-17

| be a merchant prince, and that young
| woman is filling her mind with an intelli-
| gence that will yet either make her the
| chief attraction of good mans home, or
| give her an independence of character
| that will qualify her to build her own
home and maintain it in a happiness
| that requires no augmentation from
any of our rougher sex. That young
man or young woman can, by the
right literary and moral improve
ment of the spare ten minutes here or
there in every day, rise head and shout
ders in prosperity, and character, and
| influence above the loungers who read
nothing or read that which bsdwarfs. See
all the forests of good American literature
dripping with honey. Why pick up the
honey combs that have in them the fiery
bees which will sting you with an eternal
poison while you taste 1t? One book may
for you or me de- lie every thing for this
world or the next. It was turning point
| with me when in Wynkoop's book store,
Syracuse, one day 1 picked up a book
called ''The Beauties of Ruskin." 1t was
only book of extracts, but it was all
pure honey, and was not satisfied until
had purchased all his works, at that time
expensive beyond all easy capacity to
own them, and what a heaven [ went
through in reading his "Seven Lamps of
| Architecture" and his ''Stones of
Venice" it is impossible for me to describe
except by saying that it gave me rap
ture for good books, and an everlasting
disgust for decrepit or immoral books that
will last me while my immortal
soul lasts. All around the
Church and the world to-
day there are busy hives of intel
ligencs occupied by authors and author
esses from whose pens drip a distilation
VIII CHI is the very nectar of Heaven, and
why will you thrust your rod of inquis-
tiveness into the beautiful saccharine of
perdition?
. Stimulating liquids also come into the
category of temptations delicious, but
beautiful. You say: 81 can not bear the
taste of intoxicating liquor, aud how any
man can like it is to me an amazement."
, Well then, it is no credit to you that you
do not take it. Do not brag about your
, total abstinence, because it is not from
. any principle that you reject alcoholism,
but for the same reason that you reject
: certain styles of food-you simply don't
like the taste of them. But multitudes of
people have a natural fondness for all
: kinds OF intoxicant. They like it so much
look at it. They are dyspeptic, and they
} take it to aid digestion, or they are an
> noyed by insomnia, and they take it to
5 produce sleep, or they are troubled, and
0 they take it to make them oblivious, OF
8 they feel good and the must cele
t brate their hilarity. They begin will
: mint julep sucked through two straws or
> the Long Branch piazza and end in the
/, ditch, taking from jug a liquid, hall
l kerosene and half whisky.
4 To cure the habit before it comes to its
9 last stages, various plans were tried in
:, olden times. This plan was recommended
in the books. When a man wanted to re
Q form he put shots or bullets into the CUP
: or glass of strong drink-one additional
Q shot or bullet each day, that displaced sc
), much liquor. Bullet after bullet added
t day by day, of course the liquor
became less and less until the bull
8 let's would entirely fill up the glass and
: there was no room for the liquid, and by
If that timeit was said the inebria.e would
be cured. Whether any one ever wa
!. cured in that way, 1 know not, but b.
% long experiment it is found that the only
$ way is to stop short off, and when a ma,
; does that he needs God to help him. AM
y there have been more cases than you cal
n count when God has so helped the ma
y that he quit forever, and could count
II score of them here to-day, some of then
It pillars in the house of God.
y One would suppose that man woul
o take warning from some of the ominou
L names given to the intoxicants, and stan
ie off from the devastating influence. Yo
- have noticed, for instance, that some G
4. the restaurants are called "The Shades,
%ry,x - 81, D.,
IS utation in the shade, and his morals in tn
III shade, aud his prosperity in the shade
IN and his wife and children in the shade, an
ke his immortal destiny in the shade.
Now, / find ON some of the liquor sign
i'd in all our cities the words "Old Crow,
st nightly suggestive of q carcass and tn
filthy raven that swoops upon it. sol
Ill Crow!" Men and women without mum
m bers slain of rum, but unburied, and thi
e. evil is pecking at their glazed eyes, an
I'd pecking at their bloated cheeks. and peel
ing at their destroyed manhood and won
il, anhood, thrusting beak and claw into tn
d, mortal remains of what was once gle
re riously alive, but now morally dead. "Ol,
al Crow!n But, alas, how many take n
he warning. They make me think of Casa
lie on his.w to assassination, fearing notl
Id ing; though his statue in the hall crashe
re into fragments at his feet, and a scro
~ containing the names of the conspirator
r was thrust into his hands, yet walkn
KS right on to meet the dagger that was
is take his life.
lg Furthermore, the gamester's indulgence
us must be put in the list of temptations d,
Is lcious but destructive. l have crosse
or the ocean eight times, and always one o
ss the best rooms has, from morning till lat
IS at night, been given up to gambling prat
ne tices. heard of many men who went o
ne board with money enough for FL
lie ropean excursion who landed witt
"a out money enough to get their bas
ur gage up to the hotel or railroad station
ty To many there is complete fascnatio
ne in games of hazard, or the risking of none
Is on possibilities. 1t seems as natural fc
OF them to bet as to eat. Indeed, the hunge
Is for food is often overpowered with til
hunger for wagers, as in the case of Lor
at Sandwich, a persistent gambler, who n,
being willing to leave the dice table lon
~ enough for the taking of food, invented
an preparation of food that he could tax
n without stopping the game, namely